With just three months to go until the referendum which will determine whether the UK in its current form survives or divides, much of the attention paid by the media has focused on Scotland's ability to survive as an independent sovereign state, and the possible repercussions of independence on England. But there is one part of the UK which has been sorely neglected - Northern Ireland...

The Northern Ireland peace process is fraying at the edges. That is if you can call cultural and religious divisions and social hostilities "the edges" when they feed so powerfully the persistence of political problems at the centre.

Silent Grace is an award-winning 2004 film, directed by filmmaker Maeve Murphy. It documents a disturbing chapter of Northern Ireland's nonviolent dirty protests and hunger strikes by republican female prisoners in 1980 that were never made public.

Twenty-five years ago today, loyalist gunmen sledge-hammered their way into the Belfast home of lawyer Patrick Finucane and shot him dead in front of his wife and young children. By anyone's definition, this was a murder with collusion written all over it. Yet, twenty-five years on, the UK government still refuses to establish an independent public inquiry into his death. The Finucane family and the public are denied the full truth.

Perhaps LAD can replace the 'Loyalists Against' with 'Laughing At' and make all those who make our society unbearable the subject of derision. They have certainly made us chuckle for the past thirteen months and there's no reason to think that all-inclusive mockery would be any less amusing.

The reappearance of Northern Ireland on the global stage is largely a result of violence in Belfast. First, loyalists - who demand that the region remains within the UK - rioted after a vote on December 3, 2012 to restrict the Union flag flying above Belfast city hall.

The working class enclaves in inner-city Belfast have soaring poverty and joblessness rates. Once the voice of hardline unionism, the DUP has become increasingly mainstream and is seen to represent these communities less and less, with a similar process happening on the other side of the political divide.

Fifteen years ago Tony Blair, Bill Clinton and other statesmen mediated the un-mediatable and created the Northern Ireland that we know today. Some see the bargain as a grand failure. The creation of a parochial sectarian state suspended in a form of purgatory with a bloody history and no future.

While it would be wrong to suggest that the Irish are big fans of Thatcher, the majority want to see her off with respect. And a great many Irish have done so. Including the current Taoiseach Enda Kenny and current President Michael D Higgins.

Ever since the Good Friday peace agreement of 1998, parties on both side of the divide have, albeit slowly, attempted to move things forward. And forward things have moved, as I explained at the start. However, a critical demographic have been left behind: the working class and the radicals within.

Politics in Northern Ireland needs to address the real issues. We've practiced and mastered whataboutery for too long. The result is a flailing economy, unaided by friendly fire from within and a divided political shambles, completely devoid of consensus.

While many protests have remained peaceful, a significant number, particularly in Belfast, have however turned violent. Many have hijacked them for their own needs or recreational rioting, an all too popular pursuit in Northern Ireland, in terms of both participation and spectating.

The ugly scenes of rioting that have returned to Belfast's streets 14 years after the signing of the peace agreement are a sorry sight. But they tell a story of poor political leadership and of a demographic section of society left behind.

For any Northern Ireland protestant feeling out of place in Ireland you should read the words of Belfast's famous poet John Hewitt. He made it clear that any Northern Ireland Protestant or hardworking immigrant has as much right to call themselves Irish.